WE’RE OUTTA HERE

Beach’s Motorcycle Adventures presents WE’RE OUTTA HERE

a weekend destination keeping you on the backroads

RHINEBECK, NEW YORK

A HISTORIC GEMALONGTHE HUDSON RIVER VALLEY

Those of us who live close to, or along, New York’s Hudson River Valley are aware of how beautiful the region is. The old country lane roads, once native trails, make for some of the most delicious motorcycle riding to be had in the northeast.

This region is, more or less, halfway between New York City and the state’s capital of Albany.

This part of the Hudson River Valley is also home to many of the mighty and extravagant homes of some of the most important men and women in our history.

Tarrytown has two – Lyndhurst and Kykuit, and further north Locust Grove has a history all its own as it was once the summer home of Samuel Morse.

In Hyde Park, you can visit Springwood – the Summer Whitehouse of FDR and Eleanor (Gee, we think she was swell).

Just a few miles up the river from Springwood, the Vanderbilts built a jaw-dropping 54-room, 44,000-square-foot beaux-arts country house simply known as Hyde Park. The interior includes all of the nest nishing touches, from rich wood paneling to European marble.

Just to the north is the town of Rhinebeck, New York, and here you will nd Wilderstein, a three-story Queen Anne mansion at the center of 40 wooded acres overlooking the Hudson River, which was Daisy Suckley’s family home for 140 years. And while the rose-tinted Victorian mansion with hunter green accents and its distinctive circular tower is certainly an impressive sight, so are the gorgeous grounds, where Calvert Vaux (onehalf of the dynamic duo who designed New York’s Central Park) created an impressive network of carriage drives and walking trails rimmed with native ora and accented by wooden gazebos.

This month we’d like to feature this particular burg; as it has much to offer today’s rider. But rst a bit about the town.

Dutch families rst settled the land in the Hudson River Valley around 1686. Rhinebeck and its citizens have contributed to the historical wealth of the nation, farming the land, developing the fabric of the community and playing integral roles in wars from the Revolutionary to those of the 20th century.

Rynbeck: The rst settlement

Henry Beekman, who by royal grant owned most of the present town of Rhinebeck, settled 35 Palatine German families in this area around 1714. Their community, centered around a log church a mile south of the present-day stone edi ce, came to be known as Rynbeck.

Business was conducted here until the early 19th century. Its importance diminished as growth and commerce in “The Flatts”, the village three miles to the south, eventually overshadowed this entire early settlement. The incorporation of the Village of Rhinebeck took effect in 1834.

Today the town offers so much from ne dining to vintage airplanes and all linked together along one of the prettiest rivers in the United States.

Opened in 1766, the Beekman Arms is the oldest continuously operating hotel in the country. The Continental Army drilled on its grounds in 1775, and when the British burned Kingston, then the state capital, in 1777, town folk sheltered at the hotel. The Beekman Arms has 23 rooms in the inn and surrounding buildings, and the adjacent Delamater Inn has an additional 50 rooms in a historic home and seven surrounding cottages. The Tavern at the Beekman Arms serves lunch, dinner, and Sunday brunch in a Colonial-style taproom with beamed ceilings, dark wood walls, and a replace.

You might also venture inside the red barn behind the Beekman Arms, which houses an antiques emporium that’s open daily.

Not far from the Rhinebeck’s downtown you can get high if you wish.

Cole Palen, a World War II vet, founded the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in 1959 and scheduled the rst air show for 1960. A four-building museum displays a large collection of historic aircraft and memorabilia from 1900 to 1937 and on summer weekends, pilots stage dog ghts and demonstrate their aviation skills in biplanes and World War I ghters. The oldest operational 1909 Bleriot XI in the United States takes to the skies when winds are calm. Adventurous visitors can sign up for a ride over the Hudson River in a 1929 New Standard D-25, a classic biplane, on the weekend or schedule a weekday charter. There are a few famed colleges here as well, but we’ll only talk about Bard – for our own Steely reasons. My old school. We recently headed this way

with the Southern Contingent to have a nice meal at the Culinary Institute of America – most excellent in every way. There are several hotels and inns, but sometimes we like to feature smaller places that harken back to a simpler time of motorcycle travel and life on the road.

The Roosevelt Inn, just north of the CIA, is a classic roadside motel with extremely clean and comfortable rooms and friendly staff with prices in the lower $100+ plus range during the week and a bit more on the weekend – which may require reservations a bit in advance.

Check their website at www.rooseveltinnofhydepark.com to see what is available.

The rooms at the Roosevelt come two ways: The Deluxe Rooms are a bit larger and more on the modern side and their Rustic Rooms have remained in the Roosevelt Inn’s original room style; reminiscent of the old ‘Catskill’-type lodging with its knotty pine interiors and comfortable feel. This time “Rustic” is a good thing.

All the rooms have Wi-Fi, modern televisions, Keurig-style coffee makers and refrigerators.

After the CIA we took over the Inn’s Coffee Shop for an easy and enjoyable way to end the evening.

In the morning the Roosevelt Inn serves a complimentary continental

breakfast that consists of an assortment of breakfast breads, muf ns, bagels, donuts and cereal as well as various jams, cream cheese, bananas, fruit, fresh coffee, tea, milk and orange juice. The coffee, arguably the most important part of the dawn, was very good. A big plus.

This area is well worth a weekend, if not longer, to explore. If you are looking for a fun and easy ride that combines that magical recipe of pleasant roads, happening old towns, and a region full of historic air then follow along our route that starts from our friends at Hudson Valley Motorcycles – and makes a stop at Warren Cutlery too – a foodies and closet chef’s dream come true. • www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/rws2eu ,